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Save the Children to spread the word after our literacy campaign

The Evening Standard’s literacy campaign has inspired a major project that aims to dramatically boost children’s reading across the country.

Save the Children has announced it will spread the successful Get London Reading campaign to the rest of the UK by recruiting 20,000 volunteers.

It comes as the charity published a report warning that if disadvantaged children have fallen behind at school by the age of seven they are unlikely to be able to catch up and their life chances are virtually determined.

As well as representing many personal tragedies, the charity said the waste of talent and potential costs the British economy about £30 billion a year. The Get London Reading campaign has raised £1 million to pay for trained volunteers to go into schools to help children, alongside our partner charity Beanstalk.

Save the Children will also work with Beanstalk to recruit another 20,000 “change-makers” who will be asked to campaign, raise funds or volunteer in schools. William Higham, Save the Children’s director of UK poverty campaigns, said: “The Evening Standard’s Get London Reading campaign has inspired people across the city to step up and help give more of our children a chance to succeed. Save the Children wants to take that community passion for learning to the whole country.”

Former education secretary David Blunkett said: “Evening Standard readers know better than anyone the importance of all children being strong readers. This newspaper’s Get London Reading campaign — with the charity Beanstalk — has been an enormous success. It has raised the profile of this critical issue, helped recruit 600 reading volunteers and is working in 200 of the capital’s schools.”